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I've got a couple of syringes full of spores and I plan to flame sterilize the needle just before inoculation. Is it necessary to let the needle tip cool down before I inject my substrate? I'm just wondering if the heat will hurt the spores.

Yeah, normal lighters burn dirty and can actually make it worse for the needle. But swabbing it down with alcohol will clean it off and cool everything down. Although, I only use an alcohol swab, because it works just as good alone.

I don't see how a normal lighter would make it worse for the needle, can you explain? It may get ash on the needle, but the ash is sterile, right?

--------------------life is one big question when your starin at the clock
And the answers always waiting at the liqour store, 40 oz to
Freedom,
so I'll take that walk.
And I know that ohhhh...I'm not comin back

Quote:theocean06 said:If you were to use a lighter, wouldn't it burn dirty? As in leave black ashy garbage when you put flame to a metal.

it will if you hold it at the tip of the flame or in the yellow part of the flame, about 1/4 inch above it it should remain clean but as everyone else has suggestedwiping it with a cottonball or paper towel soaked in alcohol will take care of the carbon that forms. an alcohol lamp is by far a cleaner burning fuel.

No, the flame is fueled by a certain gas that leaves behind chemicals and those chemicals arent what you'd call great for the spores, thats all he means, different fuels leave different cheamicals, that's why they all smell different, reg. lighters, butane lighters, oil gas ect ect

The chemicals used for normal lighters are not clean burning like alcohol lamps or butane. I'm not even sure if butane is that safe, but alcohol lamps are used in science laboratories, so they have to be safe. Plus if you wipe the needle down with alcohol, the alcohol lamps have to be just as safe. The fact is that the normal lighters burn dirty chemicals and you have more of a likely chance of contam I would think, but I don't know how likely the chances are.

I use to flame and use a little bit of spore solution to cool it but flaming and then swabbing is better b/c it goes straight from being in that that nice-cushy-Sterile-Contam.Free-Swab to your jar which to me seems better than anything else. =0

i did what the pf tek said to do and just heated it till glowing red with my regular bic lighter. it says it's fine to use a bic if you don't have an alcohol flame so i just did that. i let it cool for at least 45-60 seconds or more before i injected it, and i squirted a little spore solution through it to help it cool down faster. did i wait long enough? i thought about wiping it down with rubbing alcohol but i wasn't sure if that would hurt the mycelium or not. also lysol disinfectant and ozium, would the mycelium get hurt if it, the syringe, or the spores got touched by any of those?

if the actual substance came in contact with the spores in any way, it would increase the probability of mutations I believe. Lysol isn't exactly the safest stuff for organisms. I dont even wait any seconds at all. As soon as i pull the flame away I wipe with alcohol swap and inoculate. If you waited 45 seconds and then cooled by squirting some solution out, you are definetly fine.

--------------------better living through chemistry

OVERGROW the government!!

it's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom, ok, thats what it is.

What the hell are you all talking about with all this "regular lighters" and "butane lighters" crap?

Disposable lighters like bics are fueled by butane. They will leave carbon deposits if you flame with the top yellow part of the flame. If you flame with the area between the solid blue and yellow, you will reduce the carbon deposits.

You can leave carbon deposits with a alcohol lamp too, for example, if you have the wick pulled out too far & the flame burns yellow.

What I've been using and recommending is a propane torch, like these:

It burns extremely hot & clean and a cylinder of propane will last forever.

Get the stubby cylinders, typically used for camping equipment. They're more tip-resistant.

Isn't a part of the point of flame sterilization to sterilize whats on the outside of the needle, AS WELL as the inside of the needle?I would imagine, if you have contam on your needle outside, that means it got in your needle cap, and is no doubt working its way up the end of the needle. So when you flame, it burns the outside, and inside via extreme heat.

Using alcohol/chemical ONLY will not sterilize the inside of the needle.

--------------------The only beneficiaries of Prohibition were bootleggers(drug makers), crime bosses(drug pushers), and the forces of big government(DEA).
(wheres the benefit for the consumer?)

Very true. I normally only flame sterilize my needle when I first go to use it, then I flame it extremely well, then just wipe it down with alcohol for all successive uses of that needle during that work session. No contams yet.